Cage n Aviary is an in-depth view of my life in bird keeping!

My name is Karl Duckworth born in Bury Greater Manchester. I moved down to Cornwall in 1999 due to family living here.
I live in a small Town called St, Austell, which to be honest probably isn’t the best place in Cornwall, however I live near most amenities which are pretty rare in Cornwall as every thing is very much spread out here.
From were I live it is around a 5 minuets drive to the nearest beach which is Charlestown.
Charlestown is a great place for fishing, sight seeing and to view some of the countries Tall ships as they dock here very often. Charlestown was the locations were they filmed the film “Hook” staring Robin Williams.

I have had the interest with birds as long as I can remember, in particular with the fascination of our own native species and all kinds of British finches, this also includes a passion for wildlife and animals in general.

It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to own a pet shop, to which I would specialize in birds.
When I was a kid I used to go to what I thought was the best pet shop in the Town of Bury, the shop was called “The Bird Cage”.
The shop had everything you could imagine for birds; Joe the owner was a real character a little fella originally from Malta.
He was the sort of fella that if your order was £5.50 he would always say o call it a fiver.
He was always willing to do you a great deal or swap.

From what I can remember he sold all types of birds INC. British birds, softbills, finches, quail, parrots and many parakeets.
Sometimes I would call in the shop after school just to admire all the birds and animals he had, and every know and then I would buy something totally different to what I had in the past, in fact once I came with a Garter snake which my mother wasn’t to pleased about.
Other animals I brought home were mice, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs and god knows what ells,
basically I always had something related to animals.

The very first birds I ever had come from the garden which where green finches.
Not knowing at my early age that it was actually illegal to trap native wild birds.
I fed these birds on wild bird food and peanuts; well that’s what they ate in the garden.
I caught them with a homemade trap witch I made from mesh wired together, plywood bottom and a mesh door at the front with a lump of lead wired to it.

Pick of my homemade trap

The door was propped open with a small twig and string attached leading up to my bedroom window.
I placed a few nuts in side the trap so when the bird went in for the nut I then pulled the string which then pulled the twig closing the trap door, the lead weight was enough so the bird wasn’t able to open the door.
I cant remember but I think these birds were released shortly after coz I couldn’t get them to breed, Knowing me at the time they were probably 2 males or 2 females.

My first real introduction to keeping and breeding birds was at a friend’s house, to which his older brother specialized in breeding Lutino and Albino budgies in their pantry least to say I was totally fascinated in this. A few weeks later he asked me if I wanted a couple of his birds to which I replied yes with a huge grin on my face.

The 2 birds were a pure white dark eyed male not an Albino and a sky blue lacewing hen.
He also gave me a double breeding cage made out of hardboard and a nest box.
I kept these in my bedroom for a short while, until I decided to build my self a shed for them.
My shed consisted of 4 Wayne lap fencing panels with a roof and door, not much of a shed but it was mine.
I then placed my breeding cage and budgies on a small table I made.
A few weeks later we had a very cold spell and both the budgies died, I was so upset at the time that I gave up birds for a while and only had mice, hamster and guinea pigs plus my snake.

It wasn’t until I moved in to my own house that I decided to start back up with birds.
I bought a couple of pairs of Albino budgies and some blues I think.
I first kept and bred these in my pantry which I thought was superb.

The following summer I decided I needed more space for my birds, so I decided to build a shed for them (no a proper shed).
The shed was an 8` x 6` one to which I covered totally with roofing felt so to insulate it more.
My bird room consisted of 6 double breeding cages and a small internal flight which is where I put all the young.
It wasn’t long before I decided to build my very first aviary, this was 12` long by 6` deep and joined to the shed, the small inside flight was then used for the aviary birds to go inside.

Up until this time I had only ever had budgies (apart from the greenfinches) until one day a normal grey cock cockatiel landed on the fence,
I walked over to the Tiel and I couldn’t believe it when he didn’t fly away.
The Cockatiel was placed in the aviary with the budgies, and from that day on I was totally hooked on cockatiels as well as my budgies.
I did ask in the local shop around the corner if anybody had reported one lost, but know one had so he was mine HE HE.
I purchased a few more tiels and bred them very successfully over a period of about 5 years that is until I spotted an add in the local freeads paper selling albino cockatiels for £25 each.

Up until this time I never had herd or new anybody who had herd of pure white cockatiels before.
Luckily the person selling only lived about a mile away so I went over to have a look.
I came away with 2 pairs of albinos a cinnamon pearl whiteface hen and 2 normal whitefaces.
From that day on I specialized in just these colors along with another pair grey cock and pearl hen which produced lutino and normal young this then lasted for around 8 years or so.
Along with the cockatiels I also had around 50 budgies some breeders some young.

Over a period of around 15 years or so I had also kept many other species of parakeets INC. various grass parakeets, rosella in particular Golden mantled, Mealys and pennants, also Ring necks, Plum-heads, Kakariki and many more.
I also tried a few finches INC. Zebras, Java’s but this was short lived as I had a certain passion for just parakeets at the time.

I then decided to sell up and move to Cornwall, it was around a couple of years before I built my first Cornish Aviary to which I bred black masked lovebirds and ring necks, this only lasted around 2 years and I sold up on them as they were a little two noisy, nobody complained, however because I was in a new house I thought It may just be a matter of time before someone did.
I then got some more cockatiels 3 pairs in fact which I still have and breed.
I currently have 2 aviaries the same size 14` x 6` one housing the tiels and one housing budgies (old habits die hard he he) I also have 6 pairs of zebras various colors 8 Bengalese, pair or red-billed weavers and a pair of orange cheeked waxbills which I now cage breed in my shed.

The reason why I started Birds Buddy was simple, being in a new place and not knowing any other breeders.
Having this website has put me in contact with other bird keepers` and breeders around the whole of the UK and even other parts of the world INC. America, Canada, Australia and many more.
I have also made some very good bird keeping friends in the process.
I recon I will have my website here as long as I have the interest in keeping and breeding birds, which I think will be always as its been around 25 years so far on and off.

I still have the same passion to own my own pet shop, which is getting ever closer as I have already set up 2 websites 1 selling Aviary products and the other pet cages, so its just a matter of time know before the shop comes.
People get in to this hobby for various reasons; this story is just the way I started and hope you enjoyed the read.
If you have taken the time to read all of my little part my history in bird keeping then thank you, I hope you enjoyed what I have wrote and in some way you can relate to part or all.
THANK YOU

Update 1-01-06
Well since first writing this article many parts of my hobby have quite dramatically changed.
I have sold all my cockatiels except for sparky one of my original hand tamed birds who is now around 10 years old, I have also sold all the budgies.
I am now concentrating my hobby on finches and have a wide choice which include Waxbills, Weavers, Manikins, Java Sparrows, Bengalese, Zebras, African and Indian Silverbills, however this is not the biggest change I have made as I have made the brake and gone full circle by buying some British Greenfinch and better still some British Bullfinch, these will be the bases of my hobby with all my flights and general setup being geared towards success with these species.
I also have some Fife canaries and have stayed with the parrotlikes slightly by having a small colony of Fischer lovebirds.
My plans for the near future are to build a new birdroom and maybe some more flights
I find myself these days enjoying the hobby more than ever before and plenty of new challenges to be achieved over the next few years.

On the website part I have also been busy with the Birds Buddy still growing and with the addition of a new website dedicated to the love I have for the British species.
This new site covers all aspects of keeping and breeding our Native Softbill and handbill species in aviculture.
The site has taken off with a flying start as this area as been somewhat lacking on the net so the visitors being over the moon of this new site.
British Birds in Aviculture, has mainly been a huge success due to the now patron John Read and the fantastic dedicated breeders who freely share their vast knowledge of this side of the hobby to which I am forever grateful.

The new site is British Birds In Aviculture www.british-birds-in-aviculture.info

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Last updated Saturday, March 31, 2007 6:03 PM